Leaving politics

dunno. guess I'm too old for this crap.

The US couldn't find the WMD anywhere. So they went house too house collecting rifles and guns from citizens of Iraq, declaring possessions of firearms illegal*. Then they piled them up and took pictures showing how many weapons Iraquis had.

Well, that game didn't fool us, we knew about the house to house searches for weapons. So they pulled out a story about Saddam having his military attack a military unit that had worked alongside the US in the first Gulf War. That's the last excuse they gave for the current conflict.

Well, the news this week is filled with stories of the US attacking civilian towns for the purpose of destroying the political enemies of the US-backed government in Iraq. In other words, democracy be damned - if you don't want the US here, you're dead meat.

I can't read this stuff anymore - sickens me how hypocritical we are as a nation; and even more sickened by the young people of the US who are willing to follow orders like they are being given.
So I read a book this week. Tried to escape reality. Pretty good escape book by Sarah Paretski: Fire Sale. Too unbelieveable to be completely satisfying, but as far as being a page turner - it works. Kept my mind off the sad state of our mingling with international affairs - sort of. The book, fortunately or not, points out the reason for our governemnt mingling with the affairs of other countries - it's a funny word - profit, which many Americans who back the Bush Administration read as prophet. So, try to escape and you can't.

I gave up on the "Year's Best Science Fiction". Got to the point where it was all pointless, so why finish it?

So I picked up Odd Thomas again last night after finishing Paretski's new one. Arrghh. The story may be good eventually, but this is the third time I picked it up, and the third time I feel like putting it down. I'm one who loves a good turn of phrase on a page - a good metaphor or simile always makes my heart leap a bit. But not one in every paragraph!!! Too much. I forced myself through Chapter 9 last night because some of the similes were good. But there's just too dang many of them to keep the story moving.

Shows the difference - Paretski had some good similes and metaphors, but they were spread thoughout the book. I'll stick with Odd Thomas a bit more. I'm over the Elvis siting earlier in the book, and I'm willing to give it a little more chance. I'm hoping the character just has to get over himself early in the book - it's first person, so Koontz may simply still be defining the character 9 chapters in. Only one way to find out.

*It still bothers me that we are doing this. Seems like if the citizens of Iraq truly wanted to overthrow their government, the fact that they were allowed to bear arms pre-US takeover shows they had the ability. Now that we're taking their arms forcibly they have no recourse but to accept the US version of Iraq. Wanna bet they aren't that stupid? I'm betting they'll continue fighting for their rights as long as there are still people breathing there who do not want to be forced into capitalism as defined by the United States.